Congratulations
by mytears4ursmile
Summary: After an argument that caused a falling out three years earlier, Edward and Bella bump into each other. He promised himself that he would tell the truth the next time he saw her. What might get in the way of that? Based on Congratulations by Blue October


**AN: Hey everyone. So I was listening to "Congratulations" by Blue October this morning and this story popped into my head. It's probably a bit rough around the edges because I wrote almost all of it in one sitting. Links to what the characters kind of look like are on my profile as well as a link to the song. **

**Disclaimer: Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. The song belongs to Blue October **

**Warning: This is not a canon couple. Bella and Edward are not together...it will make sense when you read the story. **

_I came to see the light in my best friend  
You seemed as happy as you'd ever been  
My chance of being open was broken  
And now you're Mrs. Him._

"_Congratulations" Blue October_

I cannot believe I was such an idiot. One stupid argument kept me away from my best friend for over three years. If I just told her my true feelings back then, then I would still see her. Let alone know where she is.

Bella and I have been friends for twenty years. We met in Kindergarten after she spilled her juice box all over my favorite Ninja Turtles t-shirt. We had our ups and downs over the years, our little arguments over people that each of us was dating and the typical problems of growing up. Those arguments never lasted more than a week. One of us would always come to our senses and would bring coffee ice cream over to the other person's house as a peace offering.

The last argument we got into did not happen that way. It was over three years ago and I was afraid to tell Bella the truth about something so I lied to her. It got really messy and now I have not seen or heard from her in over three years. I guess I should go back and explain what happened.

_Flashback_

_Bella had been dating Jacob Black for a six months and it was really rubbing me the wrong way. You see ever since I was about 16 years old, I realized that I loved Bella. I just was not sure how I could tell her that. She never saw me that way, and I did not want to lose our friendship by me bringing my feelings up. Yeah, Bella always said she loved me but it was as her best friend, nothing more. _

_One day, Bella came over to my apartment to hang out as we did every Thursday night. She was talking to me all about her week and I was only half-listening, taking in her beautiful chocolate brown eyes instead. _

"…_move in," she asked._

_Catching the end of her statement I asked, "wh-what?" _

"_I said, Jacob asked me to move in. And I said yes!" she bounced excitedly. _

_My mind was racing. He asked her to move in! That…That DOG asked her to move in with her. How could I let the love of my life move in with him? _

"_So what do you think?" she asked._

_I couldn't tell her the truth. She could never know that I secretly have been in love with her for years. I tightened my lips and tried to smile. _

_Through clenched teeth I said, "Congratulations. I'm so happy for you."_

_She picked up on my unhappy tone. She was always so good at reading my expressions. Her smile faded and she said, "no you're not. What's wrong? You knew it was only a matter of time. Jacob and I are in love. It's only right that we take this next step in our relationship. _

I'm not quite sure what truly caused us to have not spoken in over three years, but she accused me of hiding something from her, which truthfully I was. I was still hiding my feelings for her.

There was some choice words used about hiding things from each other even though we have been best friends for twenty years. She stomped out of my apartment and that was the last time I had seen her.

Had I just told her the truth then I would not be missing her so much. She would still have been in my life, or at least we would have broken apart with honesty on both parts.

I have decided that if I ever see Bella again, then I am going to tell her the truth, that I love her. If she does not want to be friends after that then I will accept that.

Bella is always on my mind. I feel like I see her everywhere.

There was not much work to do today at the office so my boss told me I could leave early. I decided to go to a diner in the outskirts of Seattle for lunch before I headed back to my apartment in Forks.

The little bell rang as I opened the door to the diner. The counter was pretty full of people since most people were on their lunch break. The only stool left was next to a woman with brown hair. _Brown hair. Bella has brown hair. I miss her so much._ There was a bag on the stool. _Ugh, don't tell me all these stools are occupied. _

I walked up to the woman and asked, "Excuse me is that seat taken?"

The woman turned slightly and grabbed her bag while saying, "oh no! Please have a seat."

"Thank you Miss…"

The woman turned toward me again, "Swan, Bella Swan. No prob…"

"BELLA! Oh my goodness! It's you," I cried out. Here she was, my best friend for over 20 years, whom I have not seen in over three years, sitting right next to me.

"Edward! I've missed you! How are you? What brought you to Seattle?" she said throwing her arms around me.

"I've been pretty good. I'm with the Eclipse Recording Studio. I'm mostly doing paperwork right now but I've been doing some songwriting and little recordings too. How have you been? What have you been up to the past three years?" I asked.

"Oh my goodness that's great Edward! You've always wanted to write and record your own music! I actually live in Seattle now. I'm a third grade teacher at the Hale School "

"Wow, that's awesome. You've always been great with kids."

Our conversation continued. We reminisced on our childhoods and talked about some things that happened during out time apart. But mostly we just enjoyed the presence of each other. In the back of my mind, I knew I had to tell her that I loved her. I promised myself I would. But, she seemed so happy that I didn't want to ruin it by telling her that.

We left the diner and walked for a little bit while continuing our conversation. We made it to a little park down the road and sat down on a bench. I need to tell the truth. It's now or never.

"Bella?" I asked staring into her brown eyes. "I need to tell you the reason I was so angry about you and Jacob all those years ago."

"Edward, it's in the past. I'm over it. I was stupid to leave you out of my life after that but I grew up and realized how stupid I was to lose my best friend. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she said noticing my shaky voice.

"No, I really think you need to know. We are best friends. I should be open about it."

"Okay then," she said as she smiled at me.

"I know I always gave Jacob a hard time and it was obvious that I didn't like him. But there is a good reason for that. You see Jacob had something that I had wanted for quite some time. He…he had…"

Just then, her phone began ringing. "I'm sorry Edward. I need to take this. It'll only take a minute."

She opened her phone, "Hi sweetie! How are you? Did you have fun at Aunt Ali's house? Really? I can't wait to see the picture you made me. I have to go baby. Mommy will see you in a little bit. Be good for daddy. I love you too. Bye!"

I looked at Bella as she hung up her phone. _Mommy_ will see you in a little bit. Be good for _daddy_? Bella has a kid and maybe a husband.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to interrupt you" she said, putting her phone back in her bag.

"You...you have a kid?"

She looked up and smiled. "Yeah. Her name is Avery Marie. She's 2 ½ years old." She started rummaging through her bag and took out her wallet. She opened it and passed me a picture. Staring back at me was an adorable little girl. She had Bella's chocolate brown eyes and brown hair. She had very tan skin. That is when I knew the worst thing had happened. She's Jacob Black's kid.

"She's adorable Bella. She's Jacob's kid?" I said.

"Yeah. About a month after I moved in with him, I found out I was six weeks pregnant. We moved to Seattle not long after Avery was born. He's been such a great father to her."

She looked down at her hands. That is when I realized she had a ring on. "And you are married to him aren't you?"

"Yes. About six months after Avery was born, Jacob asked me to marry him. I didn't want a big wedding so we went to town hall the next day to make it official. I love him," the smile she had began to fade. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier Edward. It's not that I didn't want to tell you I was pregnant or that I was getting married, I was just scared. We stopped talking on such a bad note. I was scared to come back and tell you what was going on. But I'm so happy that I bumped into you today."

"Wow. Well congratulations. I'm happy for you." I smiled, even though on the inside I was falling apart.

"You really aren't that happy for me," she mumbled. "You never liked Jacob. I mean you just said that before I got my phone call."

Now what do I say. I can't tell her now that I'm in love with her. She's married. She's happy. She has a child! Even if I told her, it's not going to change her mind. She will never love me the way I love her.

"First of all, I am happy BECAUSE you are happy." _Okay well I'm telling the truth so far._ _Her happiness is all that matters to me. _"The reason I didn't like Jacob so much is because…because I felt he was taking my best friend away."_ And he got to love you the way I can't._ "And I guess he did. But the more that I thought about it, I realized it was going to happen sooner or later. You know, I was never good at sharing. When we were in kindergarten, I wouldn't even share my crayons with you. I love you Bella and the thought of anyone hurting you upset me. I guess when I realized Jacob was actually good for you it made me realize you didn't need me as much to help chase off all the douche bags. It made me feel less important to you."

Well I did actually tell the truth. That is why I didn't like Jacob. I felt like he would take my best friend away. And what would happen if he did hurt her? She wouldn't have me to help her out. Maybe that was a decent answer for Bella. I told her the truth…well not that I'm in love with her, but she's married and you just don't tell a married woman things like that.

"Oh Edward!" she threw her arms around my waist and put her head on my shoulder. I'm so sorry you felt that way. You know I would have never pushed you away. If it weren't for that stupid argument, we still would be friends as strong as ever. The only difference is Jake and I am married. But it would still be nice to have my best friend in my life."

We just sat there embraced in a hug, not romantically but as two old friends content with each other. Inside I was still falling apart. It hurt me to know my best friend, the woman I have loved since I was 16 years old, was living a happy life with the guy she loved and I would never have that with the one girl I truly loved. However, there is nothing I can do about it. She is happy and that is all that should matter to me.

Bella glanced down at her watch and shifted to look at me, "hey, I need to head home. Jake has to get to work and I have to take over Avery duty. Do you want to come over and meet her?"

"Yeah, sure. I'd love to meet her," I said enthusiastically. And to tell you the truth, I was excited to meet Avery. I mean she is my best friend's daughter.

We walked back to the diner where our cars were and I followed Bella for a little while before pulling in front of a nice colonial house. The house was in a cul-de-sac inside a nice neighborhood. I got out of my car and met Bella by the door. She unlocked it and walked inside.

"Hello!" she called out.

"MOMMY! I missed you!" a little girl who I assumed to be Avery jumped into Bella's arms. Avery looked at me and said, "who are you?"

"Avery, this is mommy's best friend Edward. I've known him since I was a little girl" Bella said.

Bella put Avery down and then Avery walked up to me and tugged on my leg wanting to be picked up. I picked her up and she said, "Hi, Uncle Edward. I'm Avery! I'm this many" as she held up two fingers. "Do you want to play with me?"

"Well hi Avery, it's wonderful to meet you. I would love to play with you." This girl has already got me wrapped around her finger.

I put Avery down and she pulled me toward what I guess was the living room/playroom. Bella followed behind us. As we turned the corner, I saw him. There was Jacob Black walking down the stairs.

Bella walked over to Jacob and he pulled her in for a kiss. "Hi baby, how was your day?" she asked him.

"It was nice. I ran some errands, picked up Avery from Alice's house and we had a nice picnic at that park and played on the playground for a bit. Right Avery?"

"Yeah Daddy it was sooo fun! Daddy! This is Uncle Edward! He's going to play with me!" Avery said to her daddy excitedly.

Jake looked up at me, not noticing my presence before. "Hey! Edward! What's up man? Haven't seen you in so long. We've missed you."

"Yeah it's been a long time, some misunderstandings that are now resolved. It's nice to see you too Jacob." I said trying to be as civil as possible.

"Well I'd love to stay and catch up but I have to head out to work but maybe you can come by another time Edward. Maybe watch a game or something. I feel like we didn't really have the chance to become good friends," Jake said.

Damn maybe this guy is better than I thought. I mean you can see how much he loves Bella by the way he looks at her and his daughter is the most adorable little girl I've ever met. Maybe I was wrong about him.

"Yeah definitely Jacob. I'll keep in touch."

"Alright, I will see both later," Jacob said to Bella and Avery.

"Bye Sweetheart." "Bye daddy!" Bella and Avery both said as the hugged Jake.

As I looked on I saw a beautiful family; A family that the woman of my dreams, the love of my life had. The family that I wish was mine. I cannot change Bella's mind, nor do I have the heart to do that, but on the inside I will always wish that, it was me in that embrace, not Jacob Black.


End file.
